It’s official: The Sunflower Award program has taken root at St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital in the form of a new wall of honor unveiled Wednesday (June 19) at the Covington hospital’s main campus.
“I love the quote from Mother Teresa: ‘Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.’ That works for today, doesn’t it?,” STHS Chaplain Kimberly Neuenswander said in her invocation for the wall’s unveiling.
An offshoot of the Daisy Award for exceptional nursing, the Sunflower Award program was implemented in January by the STHS Nursing Department to recognize those non-nursing colleagues who go above and beyond to support the health system’s nurses in their healing mission.
To commemorate the honor, each Sunflower recipient receives a piece of angel artwork commissioned by STHS leadership from Covington artist Jennette Brett, in addition to a bit of fitting hoopla.
And now, each Sunflower recipient can also see their name immortalized on the Sunflower recognition wall, designed to coordinate with the Daisy wall of honor installed adjacent to it last summer in the hospital’s Conference Center Hallway.
Fittingly, most of the 10 past Sunflower winners were present Wednesday to assist in the wall’s unveiling with health system President and CEO Joan Coffman.
“The sun truly represents warmth and strength, and the flower represents devotion, compassion and enthusiasm or joy,” Coffman said just before the unveiling. “To me, when you put that together, what a special thing the sunflower represents.”
As for the award named after it, she added, “It truly does exemplify our colleagues here at STHS who really go above and beyond for every patient, every touch, every time.”
Both the Daisy and the Sunflower recognition walls were made possible through the generous support of donors the nonprofit St. Tammany Hospital Foundation.